Despair and Hilarity in one Day....

Yesterday, February 2, 2013, we had the funeral of Doug's dad.  It was (and is) one of the deepest sorrows I have felt in my whole life.  I have lost loved ones, but Dad was just one of those people that got into your heart and you knew he was there always.  Those of you who had the privilege of knowing and talking to dad know the feeling.  The program was wonderful.  Doug's 3 sisters did the life sketch...the 2 brothers did amazing in the words they shared....and Doug sang.  I have heard Doug sing many times, but yesterday, I felt Doug sing.  His dad had requested that the song be: "Oh, Danny Boy".  I was unfamiliar with the song, but after reading the words, and after hearing it sung, it was beautiful choice.  Doug was accompanied by Garna Randall on the piano and Tawna Posegate, on the violin, who were both amazing.

So from deepest sadness we go to a euphoric high.

Back in November I had bought Brian Regan (a comedian, and Allan's all time favorite), tickets for a performance that would be held on February 2nd.  This was one of our major Christmas gifts.  At the time of Dad's passing, people were out of town and so the funeral had to be delayed for several days and ended up being on, yes, February 2nd.
We almost felt 'sinful' for knowing that right after the funeral and luncheon (if there was even time for that), we would be driving crazy fast home to make it to the performance.  Luckily, the show started at 8pm and we made it in plenty of time.
Hilarity.  That is all I can say.  It was a good rebound from a day of heartache.  After the show, Shannon and Allan exited quickly because Shannon had seen a bus parked behind the theater and thinking that it might be his, they wanted to see if they could watch him come out of the building.  The show ended a little before 10pm and with the parking garage PACKED, we, Doug and I, had a good 20-25 minute wait to get out.  So we stood on the 5th level and could see Allan and Shannon waiting on the corner down below.  When there was very little traffic left, we drove down to where they were standing and parked just along the curb.  We waited.  And waited.  I went over to talk to Shannon and Allan, still waiting, and told them that there should be a time limit on how long we wait to see him.  Several security guards were by the bus and there was a 'barricade' set up so, really, to even see him walk, wave and get on his bus, might, in our (me and Dougs) opinion, be a waste of time.  For at least 20 minutes I stood there with them.  It was just us 3.  A car pulls in behind the bus and 2 people get out, we find out later that the lady had forgotten her phone, and then decided to wait for Brian to come out, so now there is the 5 of us.  I worried even more that now there are more of us, for sure he won't come over and talk to us.  And we wait......after about an hour after the show had ended Brian comes out.  One of the guards had walked over to us earlier and, I was afraid he would tell us 1. to leave or 2. Brian won't have time to talk to you, so just wave and say 'Hi'.  However, he said that he would most likely come and see us.  AND HE DID!  Mr. Regan went to the older couple first and then to Allan & Shan.  Pictures by me on Shannon's IPod are sadly bad, but he was great.  He shook all of our hands, and by the way, they were soft, super soft, and let the kids get a few pictures.  With me on the IPod camera, it took several tries.   We were all happy, but none of us more than Allan.

Thank you Brian Regan.  We will save up so we can get better seats next time your in our area!  Total on.